


The Road Will Never Pale

by queersuperteens (ruffboi)



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:54:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruffboi/pseuds/queersuperteens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Between New York and LA, Kate has some adventures.  Well, they're not so much adventures as general perils of road trips, but still.  Adventure-like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road Will Never Pale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smolassassinchildx (smolassassinchild)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolassassinchild/gifts).



> Every scene in this fic is based on actual experiences I've had moving cross-country with my wife. Twice. With animals.
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

The problem with spontaneous road trips, Kate thought, was that you couldn't plan out your schedule and book hotels and know exactly where you were going. She had an end point, of course, she was going to LA. But until she got there, everything was kind of in the wind.

The first night, she just wanted to drive as far as she could, get as much space between her and (stupid, dumbass, boneheaded Clint) New York as she could. The later it got, the harder it was to keep focused on the road, but she wasn't near any exits that she could see.

"Sorry, Lucky," she said to the dog as she cranked the music up and turned the AC on full blast. If nothing else, it was hard to feel tired when she was being bombarded by loud music and too cold for comfort.

* * *

"Aw, _Lucky_!" Kate groaned as Lucky heaved his breakfast onto the floor of the passenger seat and then looked up at her apologetically. She sighed and considered pulling over at the side of the road, but a sign popped up for a rest area a couple miles ahead, so she kept going.

Cleaning out dog vomit was not fun, especially when you'd just spent five minutes yelling at the dog not to _eat it_. The women's bathroom was out of paper towels, so she'd had to infiltrate the men's bathroom - which would've been all right since she was the only car there when she pulled in, but apparently someone came in after her, and she had an embarrassing moment running into a bearded trucker type coming in as she was on her way out with an armful of paper towels.

"You had _better_ appreciate the fact that I love you," she told Lucky while they sat at a picnic table, letting him digest his (second) breakfast a bit before leaving. "Otherwise I would _so_ leave you at the nearest animal shelter I could find."

Lucky rested his chin on her knee, seeming to know she wouldn't do that even if she _didn't_ love him for himself. Clint would be inconsolably irritating if she did.

* * *

There was no cell service in the middle of whatever amber waves of grain they were driving through when the tire blew. Which pissed Kate off, because how often did she even have to use AAA when she was in the city and never driving? Of _course_ the one time it would be useful, she wouldn't have any cell service.

There _was_ , thankfully, a spare tire and a jack in the trunk, so small favors, she guessed.

"You'd _think_ ," she grunted as she loosened the bolts on the blown tire, "that someone would _stop_ ," another grunt, "when they see a girl changing a tire alone on the side of the road."

She looked up as another truck approached, then drove past without slowing. "Yeah, _fuck you, too_!" she shouted after them. Lucky lifted his head and whined inquisitively at her.

"No, I don't _need_ anyone to stop," she told him, tugging once more and loosening the bolt enough that she could untwist it by hand. "But it'd be nice to know that people were decent enough to _check_."

Lucky grumbled a little, softly, and rested his head back on his paws, watching her with concern from the driver's seat. "Yeah, me too," she told him, and pulled the wheel off.

* * *

When she finally hit another hotel at almost 3 in the morning, she left Lucky in the car.

"Hi, I'd like a room for the night?" she asked wearily when the clerk appeared from a back room.

"Our checkout time is 11AM," the clerk said slowly, and Kate slapped down her credit card. 

"Two nights, then," she said, and pointedly did not ask if this hotel allowed pets. The last two hadn't, and she was _not_ driving any further tonight. They'd just have to deal with her sneaking him in.

Once she got her room key, she and Lucky snuck in a side entrance close to the elevator.

"Just be quiet," she whispered to Lucky as she opened the door. "And try to look like you belong if anyone sees you." She hit the button for the elevator, but before it got all the way down to the ground floor she heard someone walking down the hall towards them.

By the time whoever it was reached the elevator, the two of them were in the stairwell going up four flights as fast as they could manage.

* * *

She hadn't been speeding, her headlights were working, and her registration was valid, so Kate wasn't entirely sure why she'd gotten pulled over as they drove through Oklahoma. 

"License and registration, please?" the cop asked when she rolled down her window, and Kate provided them. 

"What seems to be the problem, officer?" she asked, as sweetly as she could manage. He didn't say anything initially, just looked at her ID critically.

"Where you comin' from?" he asked eventually, and Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... New York?" she said slowly. What in the _world_ was going on?

"What's a girl like you from New York doin' out here?"

"I'm driving to LA. Excuse me, can I ask why I've been pulled over?"

"LA, huh?" the officer asked, completely ignoring her question. "And when did you leave New York?"

Kate sighed, exasperated. "Five days ago. _Sir_."

The officer raised his eyebrow dubiously. "Awful long time to get from New York to Oklahoma."

"Look, officer," Kate said sharply. "I am taking a road trip from New York to LA. I'm taking my time and stopping to see interesting attractions and I'm traveling with a dog who needs to get out and pee every so often. I'd say five days is a perfectly reasonable time frame." This idiot was getting on her absolute last nerve. "Now, will you _please_ tell me why I've been pulled over?"

"I need to go run your info," he said, and walked back to his car. Kate let out a frustrated growl, and looked over at Lucky. "Hey, if I sicced you on him, could you take him out?"

Lucky let out a little uncertain noise, tilting his head slightly. Kate sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." She tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel until the cop returned with her ID and registration.

"You just behave yourself, missy," the officer told her. "Might not want to take so long getting where you're going." Before she could react, he turned and headed back to his vehicle. Kate just _stared_ , open-mouthed, at his reflection in her rear-view mirror.

"Did I seriously just get pulled over because I'm a _girl driving a car with out of state plates_?"

* * *

"I _have_ to find him," she told the receptionist at the Holiday Inn in Shamrock, Texas. "He belongs to my... to my friend, and they're very close. I _have_ to find him."

"It's all right, Miss," the receptionist told her. "I'll get housekeeping to start checking the other floors, in case he somehow managed to get upstairs."

Kate nodded and stepped back, running a hand through her hair and trying to breathe normally. She'd sleepily shuffled out of her hotel room in order to grab some of the free continental breakfast before they stopped serving it, then shuffled into the shower when she got back in the room. It wasn't until she got out that she realized that Lucky wasn't in the room.

If it was New York, she wouldn't be worried. Well, she might be, but she'd be more worried about a potential kidnapping to get to Clint through his dog, and Lucky would most likely show up as soon as she went into the hall and called for him. Here... all she could think was that he'd gotten out behind her when she went to breakfast and maybe headed out the automatic doors. Maybe he was looking for Clint. Maybe he was trying to get home. Oooooh shit, she shouldn't have taken him, he was going to get hurt or killed on the highway and she would have _killed Clint's dog_ after taking him to take care of him.

She was still pacing in the lobby ten minutes later when Lucky trotted innocently out of the employees only room where they fixed the breakfast foods, looking full and quite pleased with himself. Kate practically threw her arms around him and did her best not to burst into tears.

"Dumb dog!" she scolded, her voice shaking. "Don't you start being an idiot like your dad, I don't think I can handle two of you."

* * *

She stopped for coffee at an IHOP near the border of Arizona and California at 3am, and somehow managed to get talked into ordering a big breakfast by the waitress. She was the only customer, and the two of them chatted for about ten minutes before Kate mentioned Lucky.

"Is he well-behaved?" the waitress - her nametag said her name was Julie - asked, a twinkle in her eye.

"Very," Kate affirmed, sipping her coffee.

"Go bring him in," Julie said firmly. "If anyone asks, we'll say he's a service dog."

Kate's food came out five minutes later with an extra plate of sausage for Lucky. When they were finished, she left Julie a $20 tip and a note on the back of the receipt wishing her good luck on her upcoming LSATs.

* * *

LA was going to be such a relief, Kate thought as she neared the hotel she planned to stay in. Road tripping was fun and all, but she was ready to stay in the same place for more than two nights in a row again.


End file.
